STUDY OF A NEW PASSIVE SOLAR DESALINATION DESIGN WITH A HEAT RECYCLING SYSTEM

Abstract

This study presents a new and innovative suggestion to design a solar water desalination system by the direct passive method, with the aim of raising productivity by recycling the energy lost during the desalination process and raising the efficiency of condensation. In this study, the innovative design was evaluated to demonstrate its ability to increase the productivity of direct passive solar desalination while maintaining simplicity of installation and ease of operation.  A prototype of the design was built to make a detailed study on the efficiency of the design and its ability to raise productivity under several different operational and climatic conditions in the city of Aden - Yemen, where several experiments were made to desalinate seawater taken from the city's coasts and the water of semi-salty wells in the city of Aden to compare the readings different. The results prove that the innovative design can raise productivity up to 80% higher than normal. The effect of pond water depth and salinity on productivity was studied. The results show that the higher the water depth in the evaporation basin, the higher the production capacity, and the higher the water salinity, the lower the production capacity of inactive direct solar desalination systems. This study also provides an assessment of the quality of the water produced by the innovative design by carrying out several chemical tests and making a comparison with the water quality before desalination to ensure that the design is capable of desalinating seawater or semi-salty well water to produce potable water. The results were confirmed for the quality of the produced water, which confirms the ability of the design to produce potable water in accordance with local and international standards, as the amount of total dissolved salts in sea water before desalination was 41340 mg/L and in well water 1300 mg/L, while after desalination by innovative design The total dissolved salts in treated sea water was 210 mg/L and in treated well water was 34 mg/L.